Kandahar hijack case verdict deferred to Feb 5

A Special Court in Patiala on Tuesday deferred to February five its judgement against three persons arrested on conspiracy and other related charges in connection with the hijacking of an Indian Airlines plane IC-814 during its flight from Kathmandu to New Delhi nearly eight years ago.

Special Judge Inderjit Singh Walia, on January 18, had reserved its judgement for Tuesday after the conclusion of the arguments in the case of the hijacking of Indian Airlines flight IC-814 from Kathmandu on December 24, 1999.

The hearing was conducted inside the high security Patiala Central Jail where the three conspirators Abdul Latif, Dalip Kumar and Yusuf Nepali are lodged since their arrest about eight years back.

The hearing was held in camera and over 120 witnesses were examined.

The decision of the judge to defer the case to February five was announced to media persons outside the prison by defence lawyer Barjinder Singh Sodhi.

The three have been accused of helping the hijackers in procuring fake passports and other papers and also helping them take weapons aboard the aircraft that was hijacked later.

Rupen Katyal (25), returning after his honeymoon in Kathmandu, was killed while other passengers were released after a seven-day ordeal at Kandahar in southern Afghanistan.

The plane was taken towards Pakistan but later landed at the Amritsar airport from where it took off and landed in Lahore. After refuelling it took off and finally landed at Kandahar after a stop over in Dubai.